Nestled in the southern end of the Columbia River Valley is the community of Canal Flats, located just off Highway 93/95 that links Cranbrook in the south of the valley with Golden, about 140 miles (239 km) to the north.

Canal Flats sits 1 kilometre from the southern end of the 16-kilometre long Columbia Lake, the source of the Columbia River that flows north to Kinbasket Lake before turning south to finally empty into the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Oregon, a journey of 1,225 miles (1,960 kms). Columbia Lake lies squeezed between two walls of rock; the Purcell Mountains to the west and the Rocky Mountains to the east.